


the rift is still there

by raven_aorla



Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Torchwood
Genre: AU Torchwood, Chuck Lives, F/F, F/M, I'm really unreliable with updates sorry, M/M, Multi, Other, Owen and Hermann are Estranged Twins, Stacker Doesn't, all relationships established or past, so Jack never had his accident, the Doctor does not exist here, why are so many whoniverse characters named smith or williams or jones argh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 07:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raven_aorla/pseuds/raven_aorla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the universe where Torchwood shares the burden of protecting humanity with the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, Dr. Owen Harper and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb are estranged twins.</p><p>But Owen has to help his brother and Dr. Newton Geiszler cope with the aftermath of their Drift with a baby kaiju. Not only is he a medical doctor with extensive experience in all things alarming and sci-fi, and not only is he genetically identical to one of his patients and therefore a controlled variable, but he used to be able to Drift with Hermann when they were working together in R&D years ago. Before the whole changing-last-names-and-moving-to-different-countries fiasco.</p><p>Their respective bosses would like if this helped facilitate cooperation between the agencies in the process. Though they'd settle for no one strangling anyone else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"The next person who acts startled about me having a twin brother and interrogates me for details is going to suffer in ways they cannot even imagine," Dr. Hermann Gottlieb grumbled.

 

"That might be more intimidating if you say it when you're not playing big spoon while wrapped in my Gundam Wing bedsheets," Dr. Newton Geiszler replied, eyes shut and tone drowsy.

 

"That's why I didn't say that in front of anyone else. We've both had to sit through enough psychological 'interventions' already. Is this pillow really in the shape of an immense wonton dumpling?"

 

"...Maybe."

 

"Are you thirty or thirteen?"

 

Newt turned his head and grinned to see the tiny hint of a smile tugging at Hermann's lip. "If I was thirteen you'd be in a lot of trouble, considering the amount of angry and/or drunk sex we've had in the past nine years or so."

 

"Please don't make those sorts of comments around Owen when he arrives. I don't want to hear any more of his anecdotes about his flings with coworkers and that one time he swears both the man and woman he picked up at a club turned out to be aliens afterwards."

 

In the interest of their cuddling not devolving into a shouting match - it had taken ten years and a desperate Drift to take them beyond perfunctory and never-discussed-ever shags and he was NOT going to spoil this part - Newt turned the conversation to less upsetting things. He didn't need to tell Hermann that it was only because of their mind meld that Newt wasn't startled at finding out about Mr. Secret-Brother-Working-In-Wales.

 

Dr. Owen Harper apparently had xenobiology qualifications to rival Newt's, though as a generalist rather than a specialist, since the Rift in Cardiff could have all sorts of random things and beings slip through. Unlike the Breach, the Rift was naturally occurring and impossible to close, but at least anything that did come through could be taken down by his agency, Torchwood.

 

Hermann acknowledged Owen's brilliance and competence. Both of them had been prodigies and easily eclipsed any of their peers in their chosen fields. It was Owen's personality that Hermann objected to, and it seemed Owen's feelings were similar. To differentiate the two of them even further Owen took their stepfather's last name. This despite how both of them hated their stepfather even more than they resented their father.

 

Hermann called up Owen on webcam yesterday, for the first time in years. Their interactions usually stopped at brief emails checking to make sure that the other was alive and not in prison or dying, and sometimes pooling data, though kaiju turned out to be a whole different ballgame from Owen's areas of expertise. But Owen was a medical doctor by training and experienced at helping humans affected by paranormal phenomena. Professionally, he was the most qualified person to evaluate the damage drifting with a kaiju could have done to both Hermann and Newt, and since he was genetically identical to Hermann he could function as a controlled variable. No one had ever been through this experience before. At least they could use Owen as the baseline for any experimental tests.

 

Underneath all of Hermann's complaints was the steady thrum of his trust in Owen, that Owen would make an ass of himself and smirk and goad, yet Owen would also help them every way they could. Though not all of the colleagues' brand of residual empathy was pleasant, this was like a benign and soothing background radiation, enhanced by Newt's current oasis of contentment. Newt managed to fall asleep and stay asleep and only accidentally gnaw on the inside of his cheek a few times all night.  


	2. Chapter 2

Herc Hansen might be newly minted as a Marshal, but he felt like a crumpled and tattered fifty yuan note. Mako had found a new hiding place for his liquor. She wouldn't yield to pleading or threats on the matter. _Pentecost_ may have entrusted the PPDC to his old _copilot,_ yet Herc suspected _Stacker_ had entrusted his old _partner_ to Mako.

 

He'd almost been able to breathe again when an escape pod with a broken transmitter was found. But Chuck was in a coma that could go either way. Max was asleep next to Chuck in the med bay, with Newt checking on him periodically and volunteering other people to take the bulldog on walks, which to be fair was as much a concession to his new dizzy spells as anything. Herc had too much work and too many regrets to hover around his son. All this twice-damned paperwork wasn't helping, especially getting himself caught up with the classified files.

 

Since Dr. Gottlieb's secret agent of a twin brother that he'd never heard about until today was arriving in less than thirty hours, Herc started with the brief about this "Torchwood", who could also be a useful ally in their post-victory cleanup.

 

 

TORCHWOOD

 

_A small, elite group dedicated to monitoring and containing various extranormal phenomena resulting from a weak point in the barriers between dimensions as well as the fabric of spacetime. The Rift has resisted all attempts at human control. However, its random and sporadic nature means the vast majority of the entities slipping through it are manageable with no harm to the civilian population, and in some cases even benign. Torchwood employees themselves tend to have a high casualty rate, but the nature of their work allows a level of flexibility and informal team structure that appeals to specialists poorly suited to more regimented environments._

_Funded by careful investment of a bequest originally made by Queen Victoria, who narrowly escaped death at the hands of rampaging non-terrestrial hostiles during a visit to Cardiff, Torchwood answers officially to the United Nations Integrated Taskforce (UNIT) and nominally to the British Crown and MI6, inasmuch as the latter two are capable of cutting off their funding. It has been known to cooperate with the SCP Foundation, the International Watcher's Council (IWC), the Calvacadium, and the anarchistic cyberleague "Anonymous" (see attached document for details)._

_Current Personnel:_

_\- Dr. Martha Jones-Milligan, Commander_

_\- Gwen Cooper, Second-in-Command_

_\- Dr. Toshiko Sato, Information Officer_

_\- Dr. Dorothy "Ace" McShane, Mechanical Engineering/Xenotechnology_

_\- Police Constable Andrew Davidson, Local Law Enforcement Liaison_

_\- Josephine Grant, UNIT/MI6 Liaison_

_-Sarah Jane Smith, Media Liaison_

_\- Dr. Owen Harper, First Medical Officer_

_\- Dr. Thomas Jones-Milligan, Trauma Surgeon_

_\- Licensed Practical Nurse Rory Pond-Williams, Medic_

_\- Ianto Jones, Archives and Public Relations_

_(no relation to Dr. Martha Jones-Milligan)_

_\- Donna Noble, Administration and Human Resources_

_\- Lord Vislor Turlough of Trion, Defenestration and Non-Human Resources_

_\- Field Agent Sally Sparrow_

_\- Field Agent Mickey Smith_

_(no relation to Sarah Jane Smith)_

_\- Field Agent Amelia Pond-Williams_

_\- Field Agent James McCrimmon_

_\- Larry Nightingale, Custodian and Dinosaur Wrangler_

 

Now Herc was a little grateful there wasn't anything alcoholic in reach.

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

"Why do you have a guy who's both a custodian and a 'dinosaur wrangler'?" Newt blurted out before Owen had a chance to introduce himself. It was better than blurting out that if this is what Hermann would look like in fitted jeans and a leather jacket rather than his knits and tweeds that slouched all over his unexpectedly lovely body then _damnnnnnnnn._

 

Owen raised an eyebrow. "You must be Dr. Geiszler."

 

"Call me Newt, please, and, uh, this way, let's get you off the helipad cause it looks like it's gonna rain..."

 

"Dr. Owen Harper. Hell of a trip." He looked around as they entered the main hangar, taking in all the technicians and administrators scurrying around the cavernous space and shifting his pack from one shoulder to the other. "We don't have nearly as many people in Torchwood and some members like to make up their own job titles. Larry insists that since he's the one who usually feeds and cleans up after Mwyndeg he can call himself a Dinosaur Wrangler as much as he wants."

 

"Moo een deg?" Of course he knew this wasn't Hermann, but Newt caught himself trying to orbit around Owen like a bustling satellite so that he could get out his nervous energy without leaving the other man behind. Owen was perfectly healthy, as far as Newt could see, and also had a stud in his left ear and a shark tooth on a leather cord around his neck. And much better hair.

 

"Ianto named her, since he caught her originally," Owen said, shouldering past a mechanic without any acknowledgement. Okay, that wasn't cool. They weren't even in a hurry. "Welsh name. She's an iguanodon. Thankfully vegetarian and fairly docile. Closest thing to a team pet we have, I suppose. We usually can't send things back through the Rift once they're here, unless they happen to be sentient beings with their own mode of transport. Jamie's actually a Scotsman from the eighteenth century who fell through. Wouldn't trust any of us but Ianto, Gwen, Andy, and Pond at first cause the rest of us sounded too English and he thought the Redcoats would come hang him any moment."

 

"Thought you lot were supposed to be a secret agency, Dr. Harper," Marshal Hansen said, standing in front of his office door and gesturing for them to follow him inside.

 

Owen shrugged. "Commander Jones-Milligan said I could be free with anyone of Dr. Geiszler's clearance level and above, and she has no illusions that my brother hasn't been keeping an eye on me. You know how it is with someone you've Drifted with. Even if it's been a long time and a lot of unpleasantness. Especially family."

 

Hansen sank into his chair, careful not to bump his broken arm, and murmured, "Right."

 

"Whoa, when did the two of you Drift?!"

 

"Sit down before you faint again, Newt, you're sending me round the twist just watching you." Hansen nudged a bottle of water at him for good measure as Newt meekly deposited himself in a chair.

 

Owen set his bag on the floor and took the other chair. "We used to work together in the initial research and development stages of the Jaegers. He did the calculations and I studied the actual effects on the pilots. When it was discovered twins often have higher success rates we gave it a go to experience it firsthand. Now if we can move onto subjects that are actually relevant..."

 

Newt knew that he wasn't just imagining the searing, phantom ache in his leg at Owen's words, even if it wasn't his pain that he was feeling. If he had to sneak around and trick one of the brothers into explaining, or if he had to phone up the Dinosaur Wrangler or the director of Defenestration and Non-Human Resources (didn't "defenestration" either mean throwing things out of windows or leaping out of windows?) or bully the displaced 18th Century Scotsman, or _tell Hermann that he was worried because he loved him_ , then he would. He needed to know.

 

His other mission would be to see if he could take Hermann clothes shopping sometime, but that one was slightly less urgent.

 


End file.
